When originally formed, the Implementation Geography Workgroup was intended to support initial pilot projects using Direct standards by assisting with implementation/operational issues through a collaborative, community-based exchange of ideas and experiences. In doing so, the Workgroup sought to both demonstrate the potential for Direct, as well as to provide some of the experiential knowledge required to ultimately ensure its long-term success as a means of simple, secure, and scalable health information exchange.

Having addressed this initial charter through a series of successful pilots, the Implementation Geographies workgroup has continued to exist as a community of practice, sharing and exchanging ideas, issues, and experiences in an open and collaborative environment. Participants have found these robust discussions helpful to their own projects, and the Workgroup believes that its collective experiences continue to positively influence the future course of the Direct standard, as well as associated policies and best practices.

At the same time, Direct has begun to enjoy more widespread adoption in HIEs at the state, regional, and local levels. In the case of many of these organizations, project leaders have reached out to Direct Implementation Geography Workgroup participants for guidance and feedback. To that end, the Workgroup believes that new Direct Project implementations would benefit from more formal participation in our collaborative Workgroup.

Recognizing the evolution of the original Implementation Geographies Workgroup and the current needs of the broader Direct Project community, the Workgroup acknowledges a need to formally change its operating model. To that end, we intend to form two Implementation Geography tracks for members: Pre-Implementation and Post-Implementation. Members may attend either or both sets of meetings (to be held on alternate Wednesdays).
The tracks will vary primarily by content/subject:

Pre-Implementation discussions will include topics such as:

Implementation issues / challenges

Establishing operational policies and procedures

Launching Direct to the provider community

Post-Implementation discussions will include topics such as:

Operational issues / challenges

Driving adoption of Direct at the provider level

Innovations in the use of Direct

Benchmarking / success metrics

Implementation Geographies will be expected to maintain a wiki page for their respective project(s), which shall include at least monthly status updates. However, the existing format of ImpGeo meetings (with required bi-weekly status updates) will be discontinued. Instead, the calls will follow a format for topical discussions (as outlined above) and may also include special presentations from an Implementation Geography, other Direct Project / S&I Framework workgroup, or governmental agency, as appropriate.